Gareth Barry has dismissed a suggestion that Manchester City’s Champions League challenge has faltered through a lack of team spirit.

The England midfielder added that, just because the players are not constantly high-fiving each other, it does not mean they have no togetherness.

The accusation came from a Dutch journalist ahead of tonight’s crunch match with Ajax, which the Blues need to win in order to keep their hopes of qualification for the knockout stage alive.

The reporter felt he detected a ‘lack of joy’ in the City team as they slumped 3-1 to Ajax in the Amsterdam ArenA a fortnight ago, and questioned their spirit.

Barry, however, insisted the reporter had got it wrong, saying: “Whenever there is a defeat these things can be thrown at the team.

“It was clear we did not perform to the best of our abilities, but it was not down to a lack of effort from the team or a lack of team spirit.

“It is clear, and last season showed it, that we have that spirit.

“If you go in the dressing room, we are not high-fiving every five minutes or having long conversations. The team spirit is being professional and doing a job on the pitch together, and that is what we feel we have got.

“We try to do that, perform and run for each other, the fans and the manager. That is team spirit.

“We did not perform in Amsterdam and tonight is a chance to put the away performance behind us and put a good one in.

“Ever since this club went through the change, it has had that idea thrown at it.

“The big names have come in and whenever there are a few negative results, these things are thrown at the players – egos, people can’t get on – but inside the dressing room we are close.

“We will put that right and make people quiet with performances. That is our target.”

The Blues can still make it through by beating Ajax tonight and chalking up wins over Real Madrid at home and Borussia Dortmund away in their remaining Group D matches.

But Barry says the reigning Premier League champions are still scratching their heads to work out why they cannot translate domestic form into Europe’s top competition.

City lost a 2-1 lead to go down 3-2 to Real Madrid, and scraped a 1-1 home draw with Dortmund before crashing to defeat by Ajax in Amsterdam. “We are finding it tough to put our finger exactly why it has been tough,” he said.

“It is quite clear that we have not produced our best performances against the quality of opposition there is in the Champions League and, when it comes to these games, when you’re not producing your best you get found out – that seems to be what has happened.

“I am sure if we could have held on in Madrid it would have been better and set us up a lot differently to where we are at the moment. We have been punished on nights when we have not been on top of our game.

“We would have gone into the other games with a different mind set but it did not happen and that’s no excuse for the performances after that. We did not play to the best of our abilities and the opposition we faced played some good stuff.”

Manager Roberto Mancini has taken a lot of flak for his side’s underwhelming displays in Europe, but Barry says there is no question of anyone giving up the ghost as long as qualification is still in their hands.

“As a group of players we are going into this game, believing we can win them and we can win the Champions League,” he said. “The manager has experience of winning things so you have to listen to what he is saying.

“After the Ajax game, when everyone was disappointed, he has instilled us with belief, that if we win the three games, then we can go through. As players we believe in that too.

“While it is still possible to qualify, that is our aim – starting tonight against Ajax we are going to try for three points and go from there.”

The talk of formations and zonal marking which surrounded the away defeat by Ajax has served as a smokescreen to obscure the basic fact, which is that City simply played badly on the night.

Barry says the team is determined to set the record straight at the Etihad tonight.

“We have to make home advantage pay, and we want our fans right behind us,” he said. “We need to start the game like we started the second half over there.

“We had a good 10 to 15 minutes before they got the second goal, and we have to start the game like that tonight and keep it up for the full 90 minutes.

“It is going to be a different game, but I think we showed in spells that we are more than capable of beating Ajax and we have to prove that.”